The Mission Beach Women’s Club donated nearly $35,000 this fiscal year to local nonprofit groups, which is the mission of the club. This year, the club wrote checks to 19 groups totaling $34,663.
The largest amount given, $3,000, went to both Shoreline Community Services, which tackles the needs of unsheltered individuals and families in the central beach area of San Diego, and Assistance League of San Diego, which administers programs and services to meet community needs.
The remaining recipients include Alliance for Hope, Autism Tree Project Foundation, Classics for Kids, Friends of Pacific Beach Secondary Schools, Friends of the Water Conservation Garden, Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, International Health Collective, Kids’ Turn San Diego, Mind Treasures, Mission Bay High School Band Boosters, MBHS Jazz Preservationists, Musicians for Education, Project Safehouse, San Diego RiteCare Childhood Language Center, Traveling Stories, Urban Surf 4 Kids, and Youth Assistance Coalition.
“MBWC is proud to say that one of our brands is a nonprofit that annually gives to other local nonprofits with a wide range of interests,” said club president Lynne March. “The impact we can bestow over the years can benefit all of us who reside not only in the community but in the county as well.”
Also, the club, founded in 1926, underwrote all or a portion of its rental fees totaling $14,000 for the year for its clubhouse venue on Bayside Walk to 10 nonprofits, community organizations, and schools. They include Initiate Justice, Urban-Surf 4 Kids, Patrons of the Prado, National League of Young Men, American Legion of Pacific Beach, Friends of Pacific Beach Elementary School, Mission Bay High School Jazz Band, Mission Beach High School, Softball Team Banquet, and Alpha Chi Omega.
The club is also gearing up to once again send off more than 200 boxes stuffed with goodies to military servicewomen overseas and on ships through its Support Our Servicewomen, or S.O.S. The boxes will be packed by club members at MB Women’s Club’s November meeting and then mailed out.
“SOS is one of the No.1 reasons that women join our club,” March said. “The club reaches out to servicewomen thousands of miles away, anonymously, to try to make their holiday away from home a little sweeter. Just talking about the event brings several members to tears of joy that we might make a difference in their lives because they have already impacted ours.”
Throughout the year, the club gathers money through fundraising activities and events. At the end of the fiscal year, the group then donates between $25,000 and $50,000 to nearly two dozen groups. The club’s philanthropy committee visits the nonprofit organization applicants and interviews them to learn more about their groups. Recommendations are then submitted to the club’s board for discussion and then to the general membership for a vote.
